A. 



SEYENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

HAND-BOOK. 

BY 

A.. H. LEWIS, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF 

"Sabbath and Sunday: Argument and History, " "Biblical 

Teaching concerning the Sabbath and the Sunday/' 

"A Critical History of the Sabbath and, 

the Sunday, in the Christian Church." 

Editor of the "Outlook and Sabbath Quarterly," and 



of "The Light of Home." ^-^ofco/v^ >> 

f'JUN18 1887 V^ 



AMERICAN SABBATH TKACT SOCIETY 

Alfred Centre, N. Y. 

1887. 



UP 



3 









Copyright, 1887, by 
A. H. Lewis. 



x 




r 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The rapid increase of agitation concerning the Sab- 
bath question is a marked feature of the times. The 
Seventh-day Baptists sustain* such a relation to this agi- 
tation, and their publications have come into such 
prominence within a few years past as to demand the 
appearance of this volume. It aims to present, briefly, 
the history, faith, polity and purposes of the Seventh- 
day Baptists. 

Living in a quiet way for the past two centuries, they 
have been little known, and less understood. They have 
been much misunderstood, and unjustly looked upon as 
bigotedly holding to a dead issue. If the reader is will- 
ing to judge them by the facts in the case, afar different 
conclusion will be reached. They have the right to be 
heard, not only for their own sake, but for the truth 
they represent. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Early History 3 

John the Baptist. — Christ. — New Testament Church. — 
How Sunday was introduced. — Interference of the State. 

CHAPTER IE 

The Dark Ages, ant> the Waldensian Sabbath-keepers. . 7 
The Papacy as Anti-Christ. — Many Dissenters Remained 
loyal to the Bible. — Testimony of Benedict, Wadding- 
ton and others. — Dissenters were numerous. — They 
were Sabbath-keepers, and the denominational progen- 
itors of the Seventh-day Baptists. 

CHAPTER III. 

History Since the Dark Ages 16 

German Reformation and the Sabbath question. — 
Seventh -day Baptists in the English Reformation. — 
Birth of the Puritan Sunday. — Seventh-day Baptists in 
America, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. — 
First organized in 1671. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV.* 

Church Polity and Denominational Organization 23 

Definition of the Church. — Practice concerning Ordina- 
tion, Reception of Members, Church discipline, Trans- 
fer of Membership, Church Meetings, The Lord's 
Supper. — Other Organizations. — Constitution of Gen- 
eral Conference. — Faith and Practice. — Church Cove- 
nant. — Expose of Faith. — Position concerning General 
Reforms. 

CHAPTER V. 

Missions 39 

Historical Introduction. — The China Mission, Origin and 
present status. — The Holland Mission, Origin, present 
status. — The Palestine Mission. — Other Efforts. — 
Growth and present Condition. — Statistics. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Education 47 

Seventh-day Baptist Scholars in England, in America. — 
Organizing for Education. — De Ruyter Institute. — Al- 
fred University.— Milton College. — Other Schools. — 
Education Society. — Memorial Board. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Publishing 54 

First efforts. — American Sabbath Tract Society. — New 
York City Sabbath Tract Society. — Periodicals now 
Published. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Views and purposes concerning Sabbath Reform .56 

Theory concerning Sabbath Reform. — Preserved for 
Special Vfork. — Stand for law, as against lawlessness. 
Influence of The Outlook, and of The Light of Home. 



SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 
HAND-BOOK. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY HISTORY. 

The first Seventh-day Baptist "came preaching in 
the wilderness of Judea, repent ye, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." The message which ushered in the 
gospel, and the gospel itself, have no meaning except 
they stand over against God's immutable law. The 
popular teachings which declare the abrogation of the 
Law of God, in order to avoid the claims of the Sabbath, 
are condemned by the words of Christ Himself, when he 
said : " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or 
the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. ? * 
(Matt, v: 17.) These theories are also positively con- 
demned by Paul, who corrects the imperfect notions of 
the Eomans, by saying : "Do we then make void the 
law through faith ? God forbid ; yea, we establish the 
law." (Rom. iii: 31.) 

Christ entered his public ministry through the door- 
way of baptism. He lived and died a Sabbath-keeper. 
He taught nothing different for his followers. He 
gave no hint, even, of any change as to the time or 
practice. The most devoted friends of the SunVday 



4 SEYENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

dare claim no proof from the Scriptures in favor of 
any change. At most, they claim only certain inferences 
which are suggested by present practices. No one who 
is well-informed will deny that the New Testament 
Church was a Sabbath-keeping and a Baptist Church, 
whatever they may wish or infer concerning Sunday. 
Neither will they deny that many Christians, both 
Jewish and Gentile, continued to keep the Sabbath, 
after the introduction of Sunday, down even to the fifth 
century. 

HOW SUNDAY WAS INTRODUCED. 

An open rupture took place between the Jewish and 
the Gentile elements in the Christian Church about the 
end of the first century. The latter element soon be- 
came prominent, and a corresponding corrupting of 
Christianity took place. This corrupting process was 
especially destructive in the matter of the Sabbath, 
through a system of No-Sabbathism, born of heathen 
philosophy. This taught that there is no sacred time 
under the gospel, and that freedom from sin is essential 
Sabbath-keeping. The Bible was allegorized into an 
agreement with this theory, and thus a gradual under- 
mining of the Word of God, and of the Sabbath, was 
carried on. In the matter of baptism, a similar course 
was taken. The use of water — both by immersion and 
sprinkling — had been known as a religious rite among 
the heathen nations of Asia, Egypt, and Europe long 
before the time of Christ. They taught that the con- 
tact of water with the body produced spiritual purity. 



HAK"D-BOOK. 5 

Under such teaching it came to be believed that the act 
of baptism purified men from sin and shielded them 
from the power of demons. This theory rapidly filled 
the Church with " Baptized Pagans/" These brought 
their Pagan theories and practices into Christianity, and 
hastened its decline. 

Sun worship is by far the oldest and most wide-spread 
form of Paganism. It abounded in Asia and Egypt 
centuries before Christ, and was very popular in the 
Eoman Empire during the first four centuries of the 
Christian Era. The cruel and licentious rites which 
had prevailed in the East gradually gave way under 
Greek and Roman civilization, and the Sun V day festival 
was growing in favor and prominence among the 
Eomans when Christianity began its course westward. 
As ISTo-Sabbathism broke down regard for the law of 
Jehovah, it was easy and natural that the heathen 
Christians should find an analogy between their long- 
standing worship of the Rising Sun, and the worship of 
the Risen Christ. Out of this analogy grew a combina- 
tion of the Pagan Sun's-day festival and the resurrection 
festival, the latter being a product of sentiment and 
philosophy, and not of Scripture. No claim was made 
for a divine law in favor of Sunday, nor for it as the 
Sabbath, or as taking the place of the Sabbath. False 
Eo-Sabbathism gradually destroyed the one, while a 
Pagan popularity exalted the other. 

IKTEEEEEE2s T CE OE THE STATE. 

The decline and destruction of Apostolic Christianity 



b , SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

were hastened by the interference of the State. Pagan 
Rome knew nothing of religion except as established 
and controlled by the State. The emperor was the 
head of the Church, by virtue of his office, and had full 
power in all religious matters. The Eoman government 
was courteous towards the religion of other nations, and 
granted them recognition, under its supervision. In 
this way Christianity was recognized as a legal religion, 
early in the fourth century. This union of the Church 
with the State hastened the destruction of the purity of 
Christianity, by subjecting everything to the control of 
the civil power, so that both the creed and the practice 
of Christians were soon determined by civil law. Among 
the earlier civil laws which affected the Sabbath indi- 
rectly, and in the end largely, was the Sunday Edict of 
Constantine the Great, in the year 321, A. D. This 
edict dealt with the day only as a heathen institution — 
" The Venerable day of the Sun " — but it put a pre-emi- 
nence upon it, as a festival already popular, which had a 
corresponding tendency to drive out the Sabbath. 
Through such influences the early Church gradually 
ceased to be a Sabbath-keeping and a Baptist Church, 
and became a Roman Catholic Church. 



HAXD-BOOK. 7 

CHAPTEE II. 

THE DARK AGES AXD THE WALDENSLAJ* SABBATH- 
KEEPERS. 

After the fall of the Pagan Roman Empire, in the 6th 
century, the Holy Roman Empire arose on its ruins, 
and all the evils attendant upon a corrupted Christi- 
anity increased, until the reformatory movements broke 
forth in the 16th century. During this long period of 
darkness, it was impossible to believe or practice any- 
thing contrary to the decrees of the Romish Church, 
without persecution, often amounting to death. 

Nevertheless Anti- Christ, as represented in the Papacy 
never succeeded in driving the Sabbath wholly from his 
domains. Dissenters who kept the Sabbath, existed 
under different names and forms of organization, from 
the time of the first Pope to the Reformation. They 
were either the descendants of those who fled from the 
heathen persecutions previous to the time of Constan- 
tine — which is most probable — or else those who, when 
lie began to rule the Church, and force false practices 
upon it, refused submission and sought seclusion, and 
freedom to obey God, in the wilderness in and around 
the Alps. In their earlier history, they were known as 
Nazarenes, Cerinthians, and Hypsistarii ; and later, as 
Vaudois, Cathari, Toulousians, Albigenses, Petrob- 
rusians, Passagii, and Waldenses. We shall speak of 
them in general under the latter name. They believed 
the Romish church to be the "Anti-Christ" spoken of 
in the New Testament. Their doctrines were compara- 



8 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

tively pure and Scriptural, and their lives were holy, in 
strong contrast with the ecclesiastical corruption which 
surrounded them. 

At the beginning of the twelfth century they had 
grown in strength and numbers to such an extent as to 
call forth earnest opposition and bloody persecution 
from the Papal power. This, and the increasing facili- 
ties for preserving history, have given them a prominent 
place in the annals of the church, and its reforms, since 
that time. Their enemies have made many unreasonable 
and false charges concerning their doctrines and prac- 
tices, but all agree that they rejected the doctrine of 
* f church authority/' and appealed to the Bible as their 
only rule of faith and practice. They condemned the 
usurpations, the innovations, the pomp and formality, 
the wordliness and immorality of the Romish hierarchy. 

There are three lines of argument which show that 
these dissenters, as a class, were Sabbath-keepers. 

1. They accepted the Bible as their only standard. 
They were very familiar with the Old Testament, and 
held it in great esteem. They acknowledged no custom 
or doctrine as binding upon Christians which was not 
established before the ascension of Christ. Such a 
people must have observed the Sabbath. But there is 
direct testimony showing their antiquity, their high 
moral character and piety, and their special character 
as Sabbath-keepers. The following is from the pen of 
David Benedict, the noted Baptist historian: 

"As scarcely any fragment of their history remains, all we 
know of them is from the accounts of their enemies, which were 



ha:nd-book. 9 

always uttered in a style of censure and complaint ; and without 
which we should not have known that millions of them ever ex- 
isted. It was the settled policy of Rome to obliterate every vestige 
of opposition to her decrees and doctrines, everything heretical, 
whether persons or writings, by which the faithful would be liable 
to be contaminated and led astray. In conformity to this their fixed 
determination, all books and records of their opposers were hunted 
up and committed to the flames. Before the art of printing was 
discovered in the fifteenth century, all books were made with a 
pen ; the copies, of course, were so few that their concealment 
was much more difficult than it would be now, and if a few of 
them escaped the vigilance of the inquisitors, they would be soon 
worn out and gone. None of them could be admitted and pre- 
served in the public libraries of the Catholics, from the ravages of 
time, and the hordes of barbarians with which all parts of Europe 
were at different times overwhelmed." 1 

Again Mr. Benedict speaks as follows : 

" We have already observed from Claudius Seyssel, the Popish 
Archbishop, that one Leo was charged with originating the 
Waldensian heresy in the valleys, in the days of Constantine the 
Great. When those severe measures emanated from the Emperor 
Honorius against re-baptizers, the Baptists left the seat of opulence 
and power, and sought retreats in the country, and in the valleys 
of Piedmont ; which last place in particular became their retreat 
from imperial oppression." 2 

Dean Waddington bears testimony as follows : 

"Rainer Sacho, a Dominican, says of the Waldenses : 'There 
is no sect so dangerous as the Leonists, for three reasons : first, 
it is the most ancient; some say it is as old as Sylvester (Bishop 
of Rome under Constantine) ; others, as the apostles themselves. 

1 Baptist History, p. 50. New York, 1848. 3 ib. p. 23. 



10 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

Secondly, it is very generally disseminated ; there is no country 
where it has not gained some footing. Third, while other sects 
are profane and blasphemous, this retains the utmost show of 
piety ; they live justly before men, and believe nothing concern- 
ing God which is not good.' ' n 

This same writer, Sacho, admits that they flourished 
at least five hundred years before the time of Peter 
Waldo. Their great antiquity is also allowed by Gretzer, 
a Jesuit, who wrote against them. Crantz, in his "His- 
tory of the United Brethren," sj)eaks of this class of 
Christians in the following words : 

" These ancient Christians date their origin from the beginning 
of the fourth century, when one Leo, at the great revolution in 
religion under Constantine the Great, opposed the innovations of 
Sylvester, Bishop of Rome. Nay, Rieger goes further still, taking 
them for the remains of the people of the valleys, who, when the 
Apostle Paul, as is said, made a journey over the Alps into Spain, 
were converted to Christ." 2 

THEIR LUMBERS. 

It is an important fact that these dissenters from the 
Romish Church were not an insignificant handful. 
Jones bears the following testimony : 

' ' Even in the twelfth century their numbers abounded in the 
neighborhood of Cologne, in Flanders, the south of France, Savoy, 
and Milan. They were increased, says Egbert, to great multitudes 
throughout all countries, and although they seem not to have at- 
tracted attention in any remarkable degree previous to this period, 
yet, as it is obvious they could not have sprung up in a day, it is 
not an unfair inference that they must have long existed as a 

1 Church History, chap. 22, sec. 1. 

2 Latrobe's Trans., p. 16, London, 1780. 



HAXD-BOOK. 11 

people wholly distinct from the Catholic Church, though, amidst 
the political squabbles of the clergy, it was their good fortune to 
be entirely overlooked." . . . "Towards the middle of the 
twelfth century, a small society of these Puritans, as they were 
called by some, or Waldenses, as they are termed by others, or 
Pauliciam, as they are denominated by our old monkish historian, 
William of Neuburg, made their appearance in England. This 
latter writer speaking of them, says: ' They came originally from 
Gascoyne, where, being as numerous as the sands of the sea, they 
sorely infested France, Italy, Spain and England.'" 1 

Benedict says : 

' ' In the thirteenth century, from the accounts of Catholic 
historians, all of whom speak of the Waldenses in terms of com- 
plaint and reproach, they had founded individual churches, or 
were spread out in colonies in Italy, Spain, Germany, the Nether- 
lands, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania, Albania, Lombardy, Milan, 
Romagna, Yicenza, Florence, Yelepenetine, Constantinople, Phil- 
adelphia, Sclavonia, Bulgaria, Diognitia, Livonia, Sarmatia, 
Croatia, Dalmatia, Briton, and Piedmont." 3 

THEIR SABBATH KEEPING. 

The direct testimony showing that these ancient and 
numerous dissenters were Sabbath keepers, is abundant 
enough to silence all doubt . Many writers concerning 
them have suppressed this fact, while many have plainly 
recorded it. We find space for the following testi- 
monies : 

<f Louis XII., King of France, being informed by the enemies 
of the Waldenses, inhabiting a part of the province of Provence, 

1 History of the Waldenses, vol. 1, chap. 4, sec. 3, London, 
1816. 

3 Hist, of the Baptists, p. 31. 



12 SEYElsTH-DAY BAPTIST 

that several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent the 
Master of Requests, and a certain doctor of the Sorbonne, who 
was confessor to His Majesty, to make inquiry into this matter. 
On their return, they reported that they had visited all the 
parishes where they dwelt, had inspected their places of worship, 
but that they had found there no images, nor signs of ornaments 
belonging to the Mass, nor any of the ceremonies of the Romish 
Church ; much less could they discover any traces of the crimes 
with which they were charged. On the contrary, they kept the 
Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism, according to the 
Primitive Church, and instructed their children in the articles of 
Christian faith and the commandments of God." 1 

Benedict has the following : 

"We find that the Waldenses were sometimes called Insab- 
bathos ; that is, regardless of Sabbaths. Mr. Miiner supposes this 
name was given to them because' they observed not the Romish 
festivals, and rested from their ordinary occupations only on Sun- 
days. A Sabbatarian would suppose that it was because they met 
for worship on the seventh day, and did not regard the first day 
Sabbath." 3 

Not only must t a " Sabbatarian" thus conclude, but 
every thinking man must agree : since no fact is better 
established than this, viz. : that the Sunday was under- 
stood to be purely a Church festival, one of the very 
things which they rejected. Blair's history of the 
u Waldenses" gives the following : 

" Among the documents we have by the same peoples is an ex- 
planation of the Ten Commandments, dated by Boyer, 1120. It 
contains a compendium of Christian morality. Supreme love to 
God is enforced, and recourse to the influence of the planets and 

1 Perrin, History Yaudois, Book 1, Chap. V. 

2 Hist. Baptists, vol. 2, p. 412, Ed. 1813. 



HAXD-BOOK. 13 

to sorcerers is condemned. The evil of worshipping God by 
images and idols is pointed out. A solemn oath to confirm any- 
thing doubtful is admitted, but profane swearing is forbidden. 
Observation of the Sabbath, by ceasing from worldly labors and 
from sin, by good works, and by promoting the edification of the 
soul, through prayer and hearing the word, is enjoined. What- 
ever is preached without Scripture proof, is accounted no better 
than fables." 1 

From a historical work of the early part of the seven- 
teenth century, entitled " Purchase's Pilgrimages/' a 
sort of universal history, we learn that the Waldenses, 
in different localities, 

" Keep Saturday holy, nor esteem Saturday fasts lawful, but on 
Easter, even, they have solemn services on Saturdays, eat flesh, 
and feast it bravely, like the Jews." 2 

During the twelfth century they were known in some 
parts of Prance and Italy as Passaginians. Of these 
Mosheim has the following : 

" Like the other sects already mentioned, they had the utmost 
aversion to the dominion and cliscipline*of the church of Rome ; 
but they were, at the same time, distinguished by two religious 
tenets, which were peculiar to themselves. The first was a notion 
that the observation of the law of Moses, in everything except the 
offering of sacrifices, was obligatory upon Christians, in conse- 
quence of which they circumcised their followers, abstained from 
those meats the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic 
economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. 3 

The charge of circumcision is made only by their 
enemies, the Komanists, and is not well sustained ; they 

1 Yol. 1, pp. 216, 220, Edinburgh, 1833. 

g Vol. 2, p. 1269, London, 1625. 

3 Eccl. Hist., Vol. 2, p. 127, London, 1810. 



14 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

were not Jews, but as their enemies admit, were most 
blameless and worthy Christians. Concerning this 
charge, Benedict says : 

" The account of their practicing circumcision is undoubtedly 
a slanderous story, forged by their enemies, and probably arose 
in this way : Because they observed the seventh day, they were 
called by way of derision, Jews, as the Sabbatarians are frequently 
at this day ; and if they were Jews, they either did, or ought to, 
circumcise their followers. This was probably the reasoning of 
their enemies. But that they actually practiced the bloody rite is 
altogether improbable. x 

Another direct and important testimony is found in a 
6£ Treatise on the Sabbath/' by Bishop White. Speaking 
of Sabbath-keeping as opposed to the practice of the 
Church, and heretical, he says : 

1 ' It was thus condemned in the Nazarenes and in the Cerin- 
thians, in the Ebionites and in the Hipsistarii. The acient Synod 
of Laodices made a decree against it, chap. 29 ; also, Gregory the 
Great affirmed it was Judaical. In St. Bernard's days, it was con- 
demned in the Petrobrussians. The same likewise being revived 
in Luther's time, by Carlstadt, Sterneberg, and by some secretaries 
among the Anabaptists, hath both then, and ever since, been con- 
demned as Jewish and heretical." 3 

An old German historian, John Sleidan, speaking of 
a sect in Bohemia called i£ Picards," says : 

' ' They admit of nothing but the Bible. They choose their own 
priests and bishops ; deny no man marriage, perform no offices 
for the dead, and have but very few holy days and ceremonies." 8 

1 Hist. Baptists, Vol. 2, pp. 412-418, Ed. 1813. 

2 p. 8, London, 1635. 

3 History of the Reformation, etc., p. 53, London, 1689. 



HAXD-BOOK. 15 

These are the same people to whom Erasmus refers, 
representing them as extremely strict in observing the 
Sabbath. Robert Cox quotes from Erasmus, and com- 
ments as follows : 

"With reference to the origin of this sect (Seventh day 
Baptists), I find a passage in Erasmus, that at the early period of 
the Reformation, when he wrote, there were Sabbatarians in Bo 
hernia, who not only kept the seventh-d y, but were said to be so 
scrupulous in resting on it, that if anything went into their eyes 
they would not remove it till the morrow." 1 

Other testimony might be added, did space permit. 
It is clear that when the great apostasy began, which 
culminated in the establishment of the Papacy, and the 
union of Church and State, there were many who re- 
fused to join with the apostate throng, or recognize its 
unscriptural doctrines. They rejected the false dogma 
of Church authority, and adhered to the Bible, Old and 
New Testaments, as the only authority and rule of 
Christian living. As a result of this, their lives were 
holier and purer than those of the apostate Church. 
Being removed from the central arena of ecclesiastical 
and civil strife, they increased in strength and numbers, 
until they came to be feared by their enemies ; then they 
were eagerly hunted, relentlessly condemned, and slaugh- 
tered without mercy. In common with the other truths 
of the Bible, they obeyed the law of the Fourth Com- 
mandment, and kept God's Sabbath. Their history 
forms a strong link in the unbroken chain of Sabbath- 
keepers, which unites the years when the "Lord of the 



1 Sabbath Literature, Vol. 2, p. 201. 



16 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

Sabbath" walked upon the 'earth, with these years in 
which he is marshaling his forces for its final vindica- 
tion. 

CHAPTEE III. 

HISTORY SINCE THE DARK AGES. 

We have dwelt upon this Middle- Age period in Church 
history to show the reader that the dissenting Christians 
who never yielded allegiance to the Roman Catholic 
Church were Sabbath-keeping, Baptist Christians. In 
them Ave find the true apostolic succession ; a succession 
in faith and practice, rather than in real, or supposed, 
tactual ordination, "When the work of reformation be- 
gan, in the 16th century, the descendants of these 
people stood firm, pleading for a complete return to 
Biblical, New-Testament Christianity. Denomination- 
ally, they were the immediate ancestors of the Seventh- 
day Baptists. 

The German reformers took low ground on the Sab- 
bath question. Theoretically, they did not differ from 
the Roman Catholic doctrine of Church authority; neither 
did they give any great prominence to the law of God> 
as related to the work of reformation. It was, there- 
fore, left for the English Reformation to develop this 
thought, and hence to make the Sabbath question prom- 
inent. Such is the philosophy of reforms. Reformatory 
movement begins at the lowest point reached by the evil 
to be reformed. In the German Reformation, this 
lowest point was represented by the doctrine of " In- 
dulgences." Against this, Luther struck his first blows, 



HA^D-BOQK. 17 

teaching, in place of it, the doctrine of salvation 
through faith, without the intervention of the Pope or 
the Church. In the English Reformation, the second 
stage of reform was reached, and men were forced to in- 
quire what relation the Decalogue sustained to the work 
of reformation. 

That the Seventh-day Baptists sprung from the Sab- 
bath-keepers of the middle ages is w T ell attested by the 
general facts in the history of that time. Our space 
will allow only the following reference. Chambers' 
Cyclopedia refers to the Bohemian Sabbath-keepers and 
others, as follows : 

1 ' Accordingly, in the reign of Elizabeth, it occurred ! o many 
conscientious and independent thinkers (as it had previously done 
to some protestants in Bohemia), that the Fourth Commandment 
required of them the observance, not of tbe first, but of the speci- 
fied seventh day of the week, and a strict bodily rest, as a service 
then due to God. * * They became numerous enough to make 
a considerable figure for more than a century in England, under 
the title of * Sabbatarians' -a word now exchanged for the less 
ambiguous appellation of ' Seventh-da}^ Baptists.' * * ■ They 
have nearly disappeared in England, though in the seventeenth 
century so numerous and active as to have called forth replies 
from Bishop White, Warren, Baxter, Bunyan, Wallis and 
others." 1 

We shall not detain the reader with a detailed history 
of the Seventh-day Baptist churches and writers in 
England. It is enough to say that they formed the most 
radical element in the Puritan party, and insisted upon 
the acceptance of the Sabbath as an essential part of 

1 Article, Sabbath, vol. 8.— London, 1883. 



18 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

the reformatory work. Their books were numerous, 
strong and efficient in defence of the Sabbath. Several 
of these were deemed of such importance, that the Gov- 
ernment appointed representatives of the Church of 
England to answer them. 1 Thus the majority of the 
Puritan party was compelled to make choice between the 
position occupied by the Seventh-day Baptists, and that 
occupied by the Church of England. Unwilling to 
choose what was considered the extreme, in either direc- 
tion, this majority adopted the compromise theory which 
has since borne the title of " Puritan." This theory 
was first propounded by Nicholas Bound (Bownde), in a 
book issued 1595 A. D., and re-issued in 1606. He set 
forth, for the first time, the theory that the law of the 
Fourth Commandment remained in full force, but might 
be applied to the Sunday instead of the Sabbath. This 
theory soon became popular with the Puritans. Had 
they been willing to accept the ivhole truth, as was de- 
manded by their avowed creed of " The Bible, and the 
Bible alone, " the great body of dissenters in England 
would have then and there become Sabbath-keepers. As 
it was, this compromise theory satisfied the average con- 
science, and, having been accepted, must necessarily 
undergo the test of time, both in Europe and America. 
This test has been made, and so fully made, as to place 
the matter beyond question. All that religious enthusi- 



1 Note. — Those who wish to pursue the history of the Seventh 
day Baptists in England in detail will find it in A Critical His- 
tort/ of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church, by the 
author of this volume. See advertisement on last page of cover. 



HAXD-B00K. 19 

asm and civil legislation could accomplish in preserving 
the Puritan Sunday, has only revealed its weakness. 
Whatever theories men may entertain concerning its 
probable future, must be made in the light of past his- 
tory. This much is certain : no abiding structure can 
be reared on the old foundation. 

SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS IN AMERICA. 

The same Divine Hand which guarded the Sabbath 
through the dark centuries between the first great apos- 
tasy and the Reformation, transferred it from England 
to America, the last battle-ground whereon the great re- 
forms of modern times have been, and are being carried 
forward. True Sabbath reform could not find a place 
among the masses until that second great error, the 
" Puritan Sunday," had borne its fruit, decayed in weak- 
ness, and crumbled from the hands of the Church. 
This trial could best be made in America. Hence, 
guided by that "divinity which shapes our ends," in 
1664 Stephen Mumford emigrated from England to 
Newport, Rhode Island. He brought with him the 
opinion that the Ten Commandments, as they were de- 
livered from Mount Sinai, where moral and immutable, 
and that it was an anti-Christian power which changed 
the Sabbath from the Seventh to the first day of the 
week. He united with the First-day Baptist Church in 
Newport, and soon gained several of its members to the 
observance of the Sabbath. This led to much discussion, 
and finally an open separation took place, and the first 
Seventh-day Baptist Church in America was organized 



20 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

by these Sabbath-keepers in the month of December, 
1671. 

The second branch of the Seventh-day Baptist Church 
in America was also planted by emigration from Eng- 
land. About the year 1684, Abel Noble, a Seventh-day 
Baptist Minister from London, settled near Philadelphia. 
The following extract from a late work by Eev. James 
Bailey gives the following : 

' ' Abel Noble arrived in this country about the year 1684, and 
located near Philadelphia. He was. a Seventh-day Baptist Minis- 
ter when he came. About this time a difference arose among the 
Quakers in reference to the sufficiency of what every man has 
naturally within himself for the purpose of his own salvation. 
This difference resulted in a separation under the leadership of 
George Keith. These seceders were soon after known as Keithian 
Baptists. Through the labors of Abel Noble many of them em- 
braced the Bible Sabbath and were organized into churches near 
the year 1700. These churches were Newton, Pennepeck, Not- 
tingham and French Creek, and probably, Conogocheage." . . . 
' ! The churches of Pennsylvania fraternized with the churches in 
Rhode Island and New Jersey, and counseled them in matters 
of discipline. Some of their members also united with these 
churches. Some of them, with some members of the church of 
Piscataway, and others of Cohansey, near Princeton, emigrated 
to the Parish of St. Marks, S. C, and formed a church on 
Broad River in 1754. Five years later, in 1759, eight families 
removed from Broad River and formed a settlement and a church 
at Tuckaseeking, in Georgia, Thes3 churches have long since 
become extinct." 1 

The third branch of the American Seventh- day Bap- 
tists originated from causes quite unlike those which 

1 History of the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference, pp. 
11-15. 



HAKD-BOOK. 21 

gave birth to the two already mentioned. Edmund 
Dunham was the originator of this movement. He was 
a member of the First-day Baptist Church, in Piscata- 
way, Middlesex county, New Jersey. About the year 
1700, he had occasion to rebuke one Mr. Bonham for 
laboring on Sunday. Mr. Bonham replied by demand- 
ing the divine authority for the observance of Sunday 
as the Sabbath. Eager to answer this demand, Dunham 
began to search God's Word for that which he supposed 
could easily be found. His investigations led him to 
discard the Sunday and to embrace the Bible Sabbath. 
Others soon followed his example, and in 1705 the 
Piscataway Seventh-day Baptist Church was organized : 
Edmund Dunham w^as chosen pastor and sent to Rhode 
Island, where he received ordination. At his death, his 
son Jonathan Dunham, succeeded him in the pastorate. 
This church still flourishes at New Market, New Jer- 
sey, and several other churches have been formed di- 
rectly and indirectly from it. 

The Seventh-day Baptists have spread from these 
three points, westward and southward, slowly but 
steadily. The report of their General Conference for 
1886 shows an aggregate of 105 churches, with 8,797 
members in the United States, England, Holland, and 
China. The odds against which their existence has 
been maintained has made them much stronger than 
their numbers indicate. Their existence has been per- 
petuated, and their growth secured under the conviction 
that God has commissioned them to uphold the doctrine 
of fealty to his law, until the Christian Church through 



22 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

its repeated failures to establish and maintain the sacred- 
ness of Sunday, either by the attempted transfer of the 
Fourth Commandment, or by the aid of the civil law, 
shall come to see that on God's law alone can either the 
idea of the Sabbath, or the day of the Sabbath be main- 
tained. The struggle for more than two hundred years 
has demanded much of patience and faith. The pros- 
pects at the present (1887) add hope to their undimin- 
ished faith that, though long delayed, the redemption of 
the Protestant Church from the error of Sunday keep- 
ing, and the consequent disregard of God's Sabbath, is 
near at hand. To those who think this faith ground- 
less, and these hopes but a shadow, we have only to an- 
swer, that since the introduction of the No-Sabbatli 
theories — in connection with which Sunday observance 
gained ascendancy, in the fourth century — to the present 
time, all practical Sabbath observance, with its attend- 
ant blessings, has been gained in proportion as men have 
built upon the law of God. History has shown that the 
compromise theory, whereby the observance of Sunday 
was associated with the Fourth Commandment, in the 
Puritan movement, has failed under the searching test 
of time. Two alternatives lie before the Church : to 
yield all Sabbathism, and go down in the tide of holi- 
dayism now gaining so rapidly, or return, without com- 
promise, to the firm foundation of God's law. Here 
the Seventh-day Baptists make their stand. On this 
ground they are willing to await the verdict of coming 
years. 



HAND-BOOK. 23 

CHAPTER IV. 

CHURCH POLITY AND DENOMINATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 

We have already shown that the progenitors of the 
Seventh-day Baptists, both before and after the refor- 
mation of the sixteenth century, were among the most 
independent and radical of reformers. They appealed to 
the Bible as the only authority in religious matters. 
The facts which they found set forth in the Bible com- 
pelled them to define a church and formulate a polity 
according to the following propositsons : 

1. Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church. The 
Word of God is its only guide and statute book. 

2. The visible, local church is composed of baptized 
believers, " called out from the world/' and organized 
for distinctly religious purposes, after the New Testa- 
ment model. 

3. A Church thus organized has full power to choose 
its officers, manage its affairs, and maintain its discip- 
line. The officers of such a Church, as prescribed by the 
Bible, should be bishops or pastors, and deacons or 
elders, whose qualifications and duties are essentially 
defined in Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus. 

Proscribed, ignored, or tolerated by the civil law of 
England, all things conspired to make such people In- 
dependent Congregationalists. This polity has been 
continued. The government of each Church is vested 
in the body itself. Officers have no power in the ad- 
ministration of the affairs of the Church, beyond what 



24 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

is delegated to them by the Church. Each Church is 
organically independent in the management of its affairs. 
All association of Churches for general purposes is vol- 
untary ; and, as will be seen hereafter, the power of 
such organizations over the individual Church is ad- 
visory only. , Such a polity is simple, practical, strong 
and efficient. It has the peculiar internal vitality and 
strength of voluntary union, for specific purposes, under 
the leadership of Christ, the great Head of the Church. 

OEDINATIOX. 

Ordination to the ministry or the deaconship, after 
satisfactory examination, is by an ordaining council 
called for that specific purpose, usually by the church 
which presents the candidate. Such councils must be 
composed, mainly, of ordained men, and while no abso- 
lute rule is enforced as to the number, custom demands 
three or more ministers. Deacons may be associated 
with these. Churches should also seek the counsel of 
unordained men of years and wisdom in such cases. 
Ordination is by laying on of hands and prayer, with 
other appropriate services. Deposition from these posi- 
tions, .should it be demanded, rests with the Church of 
which the offender is a member; in such cases the 
Church may avail itself of counsel from sister Churches. 

RECEPTION OF 3IEMBEES. 

Persons who give evidence of true conversion and of 
faith in Christ as their Saviour, and seek membership 
in Seventh-day Baptist Churches, are called upon to 
make a statement of their faith and " Christian Expe- 



HAND-BOOK. 25 

rience " in the presence of the Church publicly assem- 
bled. This statement being satisfactory, the candidate 
is accepted for membership — after baptism — by a 
popular vote. Churches may decide whether this vote 
shall be unanimous or that of a given majority of the 
members present. In some churches no other form of 
" reception " is used; in others a consecrating ceremony 
is added, by laying on of hands and prayer. Seventh- 
day Baptists do not rebaptize those who have been im- 
mersed. 

CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 

In cases of personal trespass or grievance, Seventh - 
day Baptist churches follow the rule given in Matthew 
xviii : 15-17: "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and 
him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained 
thy brother. 

"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or 
two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word may be established. 

" And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto 
the Church, but if he neglect to hear the Church, let 
him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." 

In cases where a member is guilty of crime or gross 
impropriety, and the facts are publicly known, but do 
not constitute a personal trespass, any member being 
cognizant of the facts, and, especially any official mem- 
ber, is under obligations to report the case of delin- 
quency or wrong doing to the Church. Cases reported 
to the Church are usually considered by a committee 



26 SEYEXTH-DAY BAPTIST 

appointed for that special purpose. Unless specifically 
instructed, this committee investigates the case accord- 
ing to its judgment, and usually reports with recom- 
mendations. The ultimate decision upon these recom- 
mendations, or upon action growing out of the report, 
rests with the majority vote of the Church. Churches 
may fix a specific majority as necessary for the reception 
or exclusion of members. 

SeYenth-day Baptists belieYe that the highest form of 
"discipline" is through instruction, and the brotherly 
watch-care of each member OYer the other for good. 
Arraignment as before a judicial tribunal is deemed the 
last resort, and ought not to be undertaken until, in the 
spirit of Christ, each has done his duty to the offender 
as " his brother's keeper." Eejected members are ex- 
cluded from the Communion and other priYileges con- 
nected with membership. 

LETTEES OF MEMBERSHIP. 

Membership is transferred from one SeYenth-day 
Baptist Church to another by letters, usually in the 
following form : 



HAXD-BOOK. 27 



Certificate of ||embe^hip 



Tills is to certify that. 



is a member in good standing of the.. 



and, as such, is hereby commended, to the Christian 
fellowsh ip of any Church of like faith and practice. 



By order of the Church, 



CLERK. 



28 SEYEXTH-DAY BAPTIST 



To the Clerk of the 



By virtue of a letter of commendation from 

your Church 

has been received to membership in the 

: CLERK. 



The Clerk of the Church with which the individual named in 
the annexed Certificate may unite, will please fill up and return 
the above notice to the Clerk of the Church issuing the Certificate. 



HAXD-BOOK. 29 

Persons coming from other denominations, and hav- 
ing been immersed, are received into membership upon 
their confession of faith and practice concerning the 
Sabbath, with or without letters from the Church from 
which they come. 

CHURCH MEETINGS. 

Seventh-day Baptist Churches usually hold stated 
meetings for the transaction of business, as the Church 
may determine, with adjourned, or special meetings, ac- 
cording to circumstances. The usual parliamentary 
rules which govern deliberative bodies guide in the 
transaction of all business, and in the appointment of 
unordained officers. 

THE LORIES SUPPER. 

The Lord's Supper is usually celebrated once in two 
months. This service is preceded by a Covenant Meet- 
ing, held on the afternoon or evening of the day pre- 
ceding Communion Sabbath. This meeting is usually 
conducted after the " class-meeting " plan, each member 
present being given the opportunity of making a brief 
report, or statement, concerning his own religious ex- 
periences and spiritual state. Each one is expected to 
do this, but is not compelled to. Unfermented wine is 
used in nearly if not all the churches. Historically, and, 
with few exceptions, practically, Seventh-day Baptists 
are "restricted communionists/' 

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS. 

Seventh-day Baptist Churches are organized into an 
International General Conference, which meets annually. 



oO SEYEXTH-DAY BAPTIST 

This body is made up of delegates,, each Church being 
entitled to two delegates at large, and one additional 
delegate for each twenty-five members. In addition to 
the General Conference, there are general societies organ- 
ized for specific work, such as missionary, publication, 
education, etc. These hold annual sessions, in connec- 
tion with the annual session of the General Conference. 
At these sessions all reports and plans concerning de- 
nominational work are made. Delegates to the 
General Conference, and the active members in the dif- 
ferent societies are usually the same individuals, so that, 
practically, these annual sessions are the work of one 
body with different functions. The Conference also ap- 
points executive boards for different purposes, which 
represent the denomination. The following is the con- 
stitution of the General Conference : 



HAKD-BOOK. 31 

CONSTITUTION 



Seventh-Day Baptist General Conference. 



Article 1. This body shall be known by, and 
transact its business under, the title of the Seventh- 
day Baptist General Conference, and as such 
shall hold annual sessions, at such times and places as 
shall be agreed upon from year to year ; and at such 
annual session may admit to membership any church 
applying and submitting such credentials and articles of 
faith as shall show it to be in harmony with the dis- 
tinctive faith and practice of the Seventh-day Baptist 
denomination. 

Art. 2. The churches composing this body shall be 
entitled to representation therein as follows : Two del- 
egates for every church, as a church, and one additional 
delegate for each twenty-five members of the church. 
Churches not being able to represent themselves by 
their own members may appoint delegates to represent 
them from other churches in full and regular member- 
ship. The delegate or delegates present from any 
church shall cast the full vote to which that church is 
entitled, when the vote is taken by churches. 

Art. 3. The officers of this Conference shall consist 
of a President, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries (Eecording 
and Corresponding), and Treasurer, with such Boards as 



32 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

may, from time to time, be deemed necessary, to be 
elected annually for the ensuing year by the "show of 
hands " upon the report of a nominating committee 
consisting of one member from each Association, ami 
shall enter upon their respective duties at the close of 
the session at which they are elected. 

Art. 4. The powers and duties of the officers of 
this Conference shall be such as pertain to like officers 
in similar organizations, together with such special 
powers and duties as the Conference may determine. 
The officers shall constitute the Executive Committee 
of the Conference, and perform such duties as the 
Conference may impose, and make such annual re- 
ports as it may direct. 

Art. 5. The General Conference, thus organized, 
shall possess powers and prerogatives as follows : 1st. 
The prerogative, on appeal, of an Advisory Council in 
all matters appertaining to doctrine or discipline, faith 
and practice, as between the churches, and between the 
churches and their respective members ; and the power 
of exclusion of churches from membership in tjie Con- 
ference for the want of harmony, either of faith or 
practice, with the denomination. 2d. It shall have 
power to receive such trusts as either societies or indi- 
viduals may, from time to time, confide to its keeping, 
and to make all necessary provisions for the same : to 
promote the cause of missions, Sabbath-schools, Sabbath 
observance, academic, collegiate and theological educa- 
tion, and all the interests of religion as embodied in- 



HAXD-BOOK. 33 

and expressed by the denomination, by such modes and 
measures as may be deemed best by the denomination in 
Conference assembled. 

Art. 6. This Constitution may be altered or amended 
at any annual meeting of the Conference by a two- 
thirds vote of delegates present and voting, provided 
that notice of such amendment shall have been given 
one year previously. 

There are also subordinate organizations, known as 
Associations, larger or smaller, according to geographi- 
cal boundaries. These are primarily for fraternal inter- 
course, and general spiritual culture. They hold annual 
sessions. There are at present five of these Associations 
in the United States. 

FAITH A-KD PRACTICE. 

The Seventh-day Baptists have always been thorough- 
ly Evangelical in doctrine. As a branch of the Baptist 
family, they have been in harmony with the Baptists 
concerning the divinity of Christ, the personality and di- 
vinity of the Holy Spirit, the immaterial nature and 
the immortality of the human soul, and other fundamen- 
tal doctrines of Christianity. The essential difference 
between the "Kegular" Baptists and the Seventh-clay 
Baptists is upon the question of the Sabbath. As is the 
case with all denominations, their confession of 
faith and practice has been gradually developed. They 
have been no exception to the general rule that each age 
restates its formulated faith. Those who are interested 
to follow this development will find it presented in de- 



34 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

tail in the "History of the Seventh-day Baptist Gener- 
al Conference/" by Eev. James Bailey, page 85, ff. 1 

The latest expression of a formulated creed, which is 
a general statement of the faith of the denomination, 
was put forth in 1880. Each individual church adopts 
its own Covenant of Faith, and may formulate its own 
creed. This must, however, be in general accord with 
the one given below. Churches seeking membership in 
the General Conference, or the Associations, and thus 
in the denomination, can gain admission only when pre- 
senting satisfactory credentials and articles of faith. 
The following covenant is that of the church of which the 
writer is pastor. It fairly represents the covenant 
usually used by Seventh-day Baptist Churches. The 
Expose which follows it is the official one of 1880. 

COVENANT. 

Art. 1st. We agree to keep the commandments of 
God, and walk in the faith of Jesus. 

Art. 2d. To take the Bible as our guide of faith and 
practice. 

Art. 3d. To watch over each other for good, to the 
intent that we may be built up together in Christ, grow 
in grace and a further knowledge of truth, and be in- 
strumental in bringing men to a saving knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

Art. 4th. To cheerfully attend the appointments, 
and bear the burdens and expenses of the church, ac- 
cording as God may give us severally the ability. 

1 Note. — This work may be obtained by addressing the Author, 
at Milton, Wis., or the publishers of this volume. 



HASD-BOOK. 35 

EXPO SE 

OF 

Faith and Practice, 

ADOPTED BY THE 

Seventh-Day Baptist General Conference 

AT ITS 

ANNUAL SESSION IN 1880. 



I. Of God. 
We believe in one God, self -existent, infinite in wisdom, power, 
justice, and goodness ; the Creator and Governor of all things. 
Deut. 33: 27 ; Psa. 90: 2 ; Isa. 44: 6 ; 1 Tim. 1: 17. 
II. Of Christ. 
We believe that Christ possessed both a divine and human na- 
ture, and was therefore both the Son of God and the Son of Man. 
Matt. 1:1; Psa. 2: 7 ; Luke 1: 35 ; Eom. 1: 3, 4 ; Gal. 4: 4 ; 2 Cor. 
5: 19; Johnl: 1. 

III. Of The Holy Spirit. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, whose office was to inspire the 
prophets and apostles, as the instructors of men, with a knowl- 
edge of the mind of God, and who is the regenerator and sancti- 
fier of men through the truth. John 14: 26 ; 2 Peter 1: 21 ; Acts 
2: 4, 5 ; John 3: 5 ; Rom. 8: 2 ; Gal. 5: 22. 

IY. Of the Holy Scriptures. 

We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that they are a perfect rule 
of faith and practice. Heb. 1: 1 ; 2 Peter 1: 21 ; 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17 ; 
1 Cor. 2: 12, 13. 

V. Of Man. 

We believe that man possessed a two-fold nature—physical and 



36 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

spiritual ; that he was created holy, but that by transgression he 
fell, and so came under condemnation ; that in order to be saved 
he must be born again, and that this salvation is the gift of God. 
2 Cor. 4: 16 ; Rom. 7: 22 ; Eph. 3: 16 ; Col. 3: 10 ; 1 Peter 3: 4 ; 
Gen. 1: 26 ; 3: 6-19 ; Rom. 5: 12 ; John 3: 3, 5, 7 ; Eph. 2: 5 ; 
Rom. 3: 24, 25 ; 4: 16 ; Eph. 2:8. 

YI. Of Heirship and Eternal Life. 
We believe when one is constituted a child of God, he becomes 
an heir of eternal life. Acts 26: 17, 18 ; Rom. 8: 14-18 ; Gal. 3: 
29 ; 4: 7. 

YII. Of Repentance, Faith, and Baptism. 

We believe it to be the duty of all men to repent, believe in 
Christ the Saviour, and to be baptized. Matt. 28: 19; Luke 24: 
47 ; Acts 2: 38, 41 ; 8: 12 ; 10: 47 ; 16: 15, 33 ; 18: 6 ; Mark 16: 
16; Rom. 6: 4; Col. 2:12. 

YIII. Of the Lord's Supper. 
We believe the Lord's Supper an ordinance of religion, to be 
perpetuated in the church. Matt. 26: 26 ; 1 Cor. 11: 23-26. 

IX. Of the Sabbath. 

We believe the seventh day to be the Sabbath of Jehovah, and 
that it should be kept holy as a memorial of creation and as a type 
of the saint's restin heaven. Gen. 2: 2, 3; Exod. 20: 8-11 ; Heb. 
4:1-11. 

X. Of the Resurrection of the Dead, and tee Eternal 
Judgment. 

We believe there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the 
just and the unjust ; that the righteous will be everlastingly justi- 
fied, and the wicked everlastingly condemned. Dan. 12: 2 ; Acts 
24: 15 ; 17: 31 ; Matt. 25: 46 ; John 5: 28, 29 ; Rom. 2: 7 ; 2 Thess. 
1:9, 10. 

XL Of the Resurrection-body of the Saints. 

We believe the saints will be raised with spiritual, incorruptible 
bodies. 1 Cor. 15: 35-54. 



HAXD-B00K. 37 

It will be seen that each point in the foregoing state- 
ment is supported by direct reference to the Scriptures. 
Seventh-day Baptists recognize the Bible as the only au- 
thority in matters of faith and practice. The foregoing 
Expose indicates their understanding of what the Scrip- 
tures teach, upon the points noted. If it be suggested 
■that such a creed gives comparatively great latitude, it 
will be noted that this latitude is with reference to 
theories concerning things not revealed, rather than 
concerning matters of practical obedience and holy liv- 
ing. The people whom it represents define Christianity 
as a life and character, rather than a creed, although 
they recognize the fact that w r hat men believe is a deter- 
mining factor in character. At the Session of the Gene- 
ral Conference, held at Milton, Wis., in 1886, the follow- 
ing resolutions were adopted relative to certain questions 
concerning which an expression seemed to be demanded: 
the Second Coming and the Resurrection ; 

" Whereas, there are many who misunderstand, and 
therefore misrepresent, our attitude in reference to the 
second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the 
dead; and 

"Whereas, we deem it important that we define anew 
our position on these Scriptural questions; therefore, 

"1. Resolved, That, while a few of our people may dis- 
sent from the doctrine, it is nevertheless the general be- 
lief of our denomination that our Lord Jesus Christ, ac- 
cording to the Scriptures, will certainly and personally 
come again ' without sin unto salvation/ 



38 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

"2. Resolved, That, while a few of our people may hold 
differing opinions, it is nevertheless the general belief of 
our denomination that there will be a resurrection of 
the dead, both of the just and the unjust, as set forth in 
the Scriptures. 

** 3. Resolved, That, while we know not the day nor the 
hour when either of these great events shall transpire, 
we nevertheless believe that God has appointed a time 
for each of them, and that they will certainly occur in 
his own appointed time/" 

GENEEAL REFORMS. 

Seventh-day Baptists have always been in the front 
rank as Keformers in political, social, moral, and reli- 
gious movements. Independence in thought and action 
is an essential element in their existence. While this 
sometimes gives excessive individualism, it also gives 
radical tendencies and fixed purposes, which are indis- 
pensable in all reformatory movements. Their influence 
in such movements has always been proportionately 
much larger than their numbers. Speaking on this 
point, Mr. Bailey says : 

' ' The General Conference has always expressed freely its views 
upon all questions affecting the interests of humanity. It has ut- 
tered its protest against immoralities and vices in all forms, and 
shunned not to declare the eternal antagonism between virtue and 
vice .; and has ever sought to protect all under its influence from 
the deception and ruin of popular errors and organized sin, always 
insisting that Christians should receive, as the higher law of life, 
the foundation doctrines of Christianity." 1 

1 History of the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference by 
James Bailey, p. 285 



HAXD-BOOK. 39 

CHAPTER V. 

MISsiOKS. 

Prepared by Rev. A. E Main, D.D., Corresponding Secretary of the 
Seventh-day Baptist Missionary Society. 

The object of this chapter is to show that Seventh-day 
Baptists have been and are missionary in spirit and en- 
deavor^ and to indicate as well as one can by means of 
figures, what they have accomplished, and what is their 
standing to-day, with reference to this great question — 
missions. 

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 

In 1671 the first Seventh-day Baptist Church in 
America was organized at Newport, E. I. The Eh ode 
Island Yearly Meeting was established in 1696. At the 
yearly meeting of 1801, it was proposed that there 
should be a united effort for the propagation of the 
truth in various parts of the United States by the 
sending out of missionaries. A majority of the Churches 
approved the measure, and, in 1803, the organization 
of the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference was be- 
gun. In 1806, a formal basis of union was adopted; 
and, as Bev. James Bailey remarks in his History of the 
Conference, the central and inspiring idea that led to 
this union was the idea of missionary work. 

In 1818, the Conference appointed a Board of Direc- 
tors and Trustees of Missions, and an able and stirring 
missionary address was sent out to the churches, then 
numbering fourteen, with a membership of 2,173, hav- 
ing increased from eight churches and 1,130 in 1803. 



40 SEYEXTH-DAY BAPTIST 

Within a few years home missionary efforts reached as 
far west as Indiana, and south to Virginia. In 1821 
the Missionary Magazine was published. It was dis- 
continued in 1824. 

In 1828 a new and separate society was organized, 
•called the American Sabbath-day Baptist Missionary 
Society. Its constituency was twenty-six churches, 
with a membership of about 3,100. The managers of 
this society sought, with earnestness, to deYelop the 
spirit and work of missions among the churches, and to 
systematize all missionary efforts for the sake of unity 
and strength. But the society rested upon a financial 
basis fundamentally unsound and could not stand. 
Besides, the " engagedness " of ministers in other voca- 
tions and the indifference of the " connection " to mis- 
sionary interests presented other difficulties ; and in 

1842, the society approved the recommendation of Con- 
ference to "wind up its concerns as soon as possible. " 

At the Conference of 1842, a committee was appointed 
to devise some plan for the efficient promotion of de- 
nominational benevolent enterprises. This led to the 
organization of the Seventh-day Baptist Missionary As- 
sociation in 1843, a year when 763 additions to the 
churches were reported. After several constitutional 
amendments the ° Missionary Association "■ of 1843 has 
become our present "Missionary Society." 

THE CHIXA MISSIOX, 

By the constitution adopted at its organization in 

1843, the operations of the society were limited to "the 



HAXD-BOOK. 41 

dissemination of the Gospel in America ;" but in 1844 
" and other parts of the world " was added, and the 
society at once turned its attention toward the heathen. 

The first desire was to send missionaries into Abyssinia, 
Eastern Africa, where there were supposed to be large 
numbers of people that had, for many centuries, paid 
some religious regard to the Seventh-day. But inas- 
much as the obstacles in the way of an entrance to these 
people seemed to be well nigh insurmountable, and the 
gates of China were opening, it was decided to begin 
operations in that vast empire. 

In 1847, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Carpenter and Mr. 
and Mrs. Nathan Wardner sailed for China, and a for- 
eign mission station was established at Shanghai. Af- 
ter about ten years of earnest and efficient labor, Mr. 
and Mrs. Wardner returned to America. Mr. and Mrs. 
Carpenter came to this country in 1859 ; went back to 
China in 1860 ; came to America again in 1864, and re- 
turned to China in 1873. After making a noble record 
for personal worth, usefulness and devotion to the cause 
of missions, Mrs. Carpenter died and was buried at 
Shanghai, and her husband, in feeble health, returned 
to his native land in 1876. He is now living in London, 
England. 

In January, 1880, Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Davis, and lit- 
tle daughter, and Miss Lizzie Nelson arrived at Shang- 
hai. In 1882, Miss Nelson became, the wife of Prof. 
John Fryer, and withdrew from the working force of 
the mission. 

Dr. Ella F. Swinney reached Shanghai in 1883, and 



4.2 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

under her direction a medical mission department was 
organized. 

We are not able to give exact figures, but in connec- 
tion with this China mission, there have been from 
forty to fifty converts, some twenty of whom are now 
living. 

The reflex influence of the foreign work upon the 
Churches and the cause at home has been of inestima- 
ble value. 

For the year ending June 30, 1886, the workers were 
Eev. D. H. Davis and wife, Ella F. Swinney, M.D. ; 
three native preachers, four teachers ; and four regular 
and two occasional helpers in the medical mission. 
The principal buildings are a large, and a small city 
chapel, a double mission dwelling house, tw r o school 
buildings, and a medical building. The value of build- 
ings and land is eight or nine thousand dollars. 

Evangelistic work consists principally of preaching at 
Shanghai and inland towns and villages, personal reli- 
gious conversation, and the distribution of religious liter- 
ature. Last year there were two day schools for boys, 
with an attendance from fifty to eighty, and a girls' 
boarding school w T ith nine scholars. Besides Biblical 
instruction, which is made prominent, the scholars, 
who are young, are taught the elements of reading, 
writing, arithmetic and geography. The medical de- 
partment, in which there is much religious conversation, 
reports, for the past year, 6,966 paying patients, 1,156 
not paying, ten surgical cases and 138 visits. 



HAI^D-BOOK. 43 

THE HOLLAND MISSION. 

In 1877, Nathan Wardner, now of Milton Junction, 
Wisconsin, was in Scotland under the auspices of the 
American Sabbath Tract Society, sending Sabbath 
tracts through the mails into Europe, Asia, Australia, 
and Canada. A parcel fell into the hands of Rev. G. 
Velthuysen, a Baptist minister of Haarlem, Holland, 
which led to the conversion of himself and family, and 
a number of the members of the Church, to the doc- 
trine of the Bible Sabbath. Help for the people and 
cause in Holland has been sent from friends in the 
United States, especially from Milton Junction ; and for 
several years appropriations for publications and for 
mission work have been made by the Boards of the Tract 
and Missionary Societies. Haarlem has been visited by 
some of our American brethren; and, in 1882, Mr. Vel- 
thuysen and daughter attended the denominational an- 
niversaries in Hopkinton, E. I. They visited several of 
the churches East and West ; and, as a very pleasant cir- 
cumstance, the daughter was baptized by him w T hose 
tracts had planted the truth in Holland. These things 
were a blessing both to Dutch and American churches, 
and since that time there has been, in the growth of 
the mission, much to encourage. 

For the year ending June 30, 1886, there were reported 
as missionaries, G. Velthuysen, Haarlem, and P. Bak- 
ker, Vrieschlo, at each of which places there is a church. 
Regular Sabbath meetings are also held at Groningen. 
As far as known, there are, at 18 different places in 



44 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

Holland, 65 Sabbath-keepers, and one in Prussia. The 
majority, but not all, are church members. 

THE PALESTINE MISSION. 

In 1854 the families of Wm. M. Jones and Charles 
Saunders sailed for the Holy Land for the purpose of 
establishing an evangelistic and industrial mission. 
But personal misunderstandings and other grave diffi- 
culties arose, Snd, after several years, the Board voted 
to recall the missionaries from the field. 

OTHER EFFORTS. 

The denominational fathers of the Seventh-day Bap- 
tists were men of large ideas respecting the privilege 
and obligation to labor for the salvation of all men. 
The continued development of home missions, especi- 
ally on the western fields; the increase of laborers in 
China; the re-establishment of the Palestine mission; 
and the establishment of missions in Abyssinia, Hayti, 
Japan, Europe, in Canada among Roman Catholics, 
among Jews, and among freedmen, were questions that 
received earnest and prayerful consideration. Their 
hearts were large enough, and their conceptions of the 
divine purposes respecting the redemption of men broad 
enough, for all these things; but then, as now, there 
was lack of adequate means. 

GROWTH AND PRESENT CONDITION. 

During the first decade (1844-53) there was connect- 
ed with the work of the Seventh-day Baptist Missionary 
Society, as general home missionaries or missionary 
pastors working a part or the whole of the time, an 



HAND-BOOK. 45 

average of 2.4 laborers each year; the second decade 
(1854-63), 2.6; the third (1864-73), including a woman 
who worked as teacher among the f reedmen about eight 
months, 12,8; the fourth (1874-83), 14.6; and from 
1884 to 1886, an average of 23. For a part of the 
period to which these statements refer, some of the As- 
sociations carried on mission work within their own 
bounds to a greater or less extent, through Association 
Boards or Committees; but of this work the writer is 
not able to give any satisfactory account. 

The average yearly expenditures of the Society for 
all purposes during the first decade (1844-53), were 
$1,841.09; the second year (1854-63), $2,943.96; the third 
(1864-73), $2,296.69; the fourth (1874-83), $3,907.95, 
and for the past three years (1884-86), $9,451.57. 

Something of the growth to which the operations of 
the Society have attained may be gathered from the 
statements below. Some of the figures are not abso- 
lutely correct; but all are either exactly or approxi- 
mately accurate. \ 

From September 13, 1885, to September 9, 1886, the 
Permanent Fund, interest only to be used, increased 
from $4,706.41 to $6,999 41,— $200 of the increase be- 
ing for general missionary purposes, and $2,093 for 
ministerial education. The receipts of the Treasurer, 
during the same period, for the General Fund were 
$9,879.20. Eeceipts by Mr. Davis and Dr. Swinney at 
Shanghai, $1,400. Total income, $11,279.20. Total 
receipts, $13,572*20. Increase of income over preceding 
year, $3,814,33; increase of receipts, $3,685.33. The 



46 SEVENTH -DAY BAPTIST 

Society's interests in real estate have also increased; 
but to what amount is not known. 

Expenditures directly out of the treasury, $9,280.29. 
Additional expenditures reported from China, $1,160.- 
80. Total expenditures for the year, $10,477.09, an 
increase over preceding year of $912.71. 

These expenditures were distributed as follows: Home 
Missions, $4,803.43; China Mission, $3,541.81,— $1,- 
160.80 of this having been received on the field; Holland 
Mission $520; and for the salary and traveling expenses 
of the Corresponding Secretary, printing of the Annual 
Eeports, postage, stationery, interest on loans and other 
incidental expenses of the offices of Secretary and 
Treasurer, $1,581.85. 

A statistical statement of the fruit of this expendi- 
ture of money in this country is as follows: 20 workers 
report 769 weeks of labor in fifteen different States, 
1,937 sermons and addresses, and 157 additions to 
churches, 82 being by baptism. Increase over the pre- 
ceding year, 63 weeks of labor, 24 sermons and addresses, 
and 65 additions, 29 of this increase being by baptism. 

From China, more workers and work have been re- 
ported than ever before. Much of Mr. Davis' time has 
hitherto been occupied in study, superintending the 
erection of buildings, organization, etc. ; but the mission 
is now well equipped in these respects, and, from a human 
point of view, seems only to need a reinforcement of 
laborers in order to begin a period of new prosperity. 

In Holland, a field of growing interest, there has been 
an increase of thirteen Sabbath-keepers. 



HA^D-BOOK. 47 

Thus was the Conference year ending September, 1886, 
a year of progress, one of the most prosperous years in 
all the history of the Missionary Society; and Seventh- 
day-Baptists have occasion to thank God, take courage, 
and gird on new strength for the work to which, by 
manv voices, the Lord is calling them. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

EDUCATION. 
Prepared by President W. C. Whitford, D.D., of Milton College. 

Since 1650, Sabbath-Keeping Churches have existed 
in England — three of them surviving in the last half of 
the present century. They constituted a small, isolated, 
and struggling sect, without sufficient concentration and 
wealth to establish and conduct any educational institu- 
tions. Still, among them appeared men of distinguished 
learning, a few of whom were interested in the instruc- 
tion of youth. Among them may be mentioned Dr. 
Peter Chamberlayn, Kev. Daniel Noble, who studied at 
the Glasgow University; Eev. Francis Bamfield, who 
secured two degrees from Wadham College, Oxford; his 
brother Thomas Bamfield, speaker of the House of Com- 
mons in the time of Cromwell; Dr. Edward Stennett, 
" a minister of note and learning"; his son Eev. Joseph 
Stennett, who mastered the French and Italian lan- 
guages, became a critic in Hebrew, and made consider- 
able progress in philosophy and the liberal sciences; and 
his great grandson, Eev. Samuel Stennett, D.D., a 



48 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

celebrated preacher in London; William Temple, F. R. 
S.; and the late Eev. W. H. Black, F. S. A., an accom- 
plished antiquary. 

It is interesting to note that the wife of John Trask, 
who published his views on the Sabbath in 1618, was a 
" school teacher of superior excellence/' and lay in pris- 
on fifteen or sixteen years, until her death, for the crime 
of "teaching only five days in the week, and resting 
upon Saturday." Nathaniel Bailey, a member of the 
Mill Yard Church, London, was the most popular lexi- 
cographer before Dr. Samuel Johnson. His Universal 
English Dictionary was first published in 1721, and ap- 
peared afterwards in thirty editions. It constituted the 
basis of Dr. Johnson's celebrated dictionary, and was 
studied by Lord Chatham in acquiring an extensive 
knowledge of words for his speeches. Bailey was the 
author of at least ten other works, used principally as 
text books by students. He kept a boarding school, and 
taught Greek, Latin and Hebrew, as well as other 
" school-learning." 

The first church of Seventh-day Baptists organized in 
America was at Newport, E. L, in 1671. Its second 
pastor was Eev. William Gibson, an associate of the 
Stennetts in England, where he was carefully educated, 
especially in the ancient languages. Henry Collins, a 
leading merchant, and a patron of literature and fine 
arts in Newport, was sent, near the beginning of the 
last century, to England, to complete his studies. The 
same is true of the two Wards, father and son, Govern- 
ors of the Rhode Island Colony. A few sons of Sabbath- 



HAKD-BOOK. 49 

keeping families were educated, before the Revolution, 
at Harvard -and Brown Universities. Of the latter in- 
stitution several influential members of the Khode Is- 
land Churches acted as officers, or trustees, from 1763 
to 1800. 

Not until 1834 was any definite action taken by Sev- 
enth-day Baptist Churches towards providing higher 
culture for the young. Previous to this time they were 
too busily occupied in strengthening the few churches 
already established, and in planting, by emigration, new 
ones in western localities, to attempt this work. In the 
year above mentioned, education societies, composed of 
women, were formed in several churches, under a plan 
adopted by the General Conference, to aid worthy young 
men studying for the ministry. Soon afterwards a Board 
of Education was chosen to select the beneficiaries of 
these funds. In this way Solomon Carpenter, James R. 
Irish, and William C. Kenyon were helped to prosecute 
their studies in College. 

In connection with this movement, originated the en- 
terprise of establishing De Euyter Institute, the first 
school of an academic or collegiate grade founded by 
Seventh-day Baptists in this country. The initiatory 
work was performed by Rev. Alexander Campbell with 
great executive skill, during the three years prior to the 
fall of 1837, when the school was opened in a most sub- 
stantial stone building, with accommodations for three 
hundred students. Here instruction was given with 
varying degrees of success until 1871. It is now used for 
the village public school. While the institute was in op- 



50 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

eration, here labored with self-sacrificing zeal such prin- 
cipals as Eev. Solomon Carpenter, Rev. James R Irish, 
Prof. Gurdon Evans, and Prof. Albert Whitford. For 
the section in which this institute was located, and for 
the whole denomination, it effected an incalculable good. 

Alfred University, at Alfred Centre, K". Y., began as 
a Select School in December, 1836, and soon assumed the 
functions of an academy. In 1843 it was incorporated 
as such, and fourteen years afterwards as an University. 
It still retains the academic department, with the Pre- 
paratory, Business, and Teachers' courses of study, while 
the Collegiate embraces the Philosophical and the Clas- 
sical. There have been added the departments of Indus- 
trial Mechanics and Theology. Instrumental and vocal 
music and the Fine Arts have been taught almost from 
the opening of the institution. Ladies have always en- 
joyed the same privileges as gentlemen in this institution. 
The attendance of the students was at first from thirty- 
six to seventy-two per term, but it subsequently has 
reached in some years over five hundred. 

Eev. James R. Irish was principal and sole teacher 
for two years prior to the spring of 1839, when Prof. 
William C. Kenyon took the charge, the former assist- 
ing to some extent until 1845. The administration of 
the latter continued until his death in 1867. Endowed 
with great keenness of mind, ardent love for teaching 
and superior force of will, he raised the institution to 
a high standing, not only in the denomination, but in 
the country at large. He associated with himself other 
teachers of eminent ability, some of whom remained for 



HAXD-BOOK. 51 

many years. Among these is Dr. Jonathan Allen, 
who has been President since the death of Prof. 
Kenyon. 

Spacious and commodious buildings are occupied by 
the University, costing in erection over $100,000. 
Among these are a brick boarding hall, a chapel with 
recitation rooms, an astronomical observatory, a stone 
edifice for a geological museum, and the Kenyon me- 
morial hall, used chiefly by the classes in physical 
sciences. 

The commencement of 1886 was the occasion of cele- 
brating the fiftieth anniversary of the institution. 
Addresses were presented by former students, who are 
occupying distinguished positions in the country ; and 
an effort was inaugurated to secure a large addition to 
the endowment fund. The location of this University 
is most favorable for quiet, good order, good morals, 
and religious influences. No license to sell liquor has 
been granted in the township of Alfred for more than 
forty years. J. Allen, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D., President. 

MILTON COLLEGE, 

At Milton, Wis., was started by Hon. Joseph Goodrich, 
in December, 1844, as an academic school, and was 
incorporated as a college in 1867. It was held at the 
beginning in a small gravel building, but subsequently 
it was moved to more convenient ones, two of which are 
brick, valued at $26,000. The number of its students 
has ranged per year from seventy at the opening to four 
hundred and twenty. Both ladies and gentlemen are 



52 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

admitted to all the classes. Preparatory and teachers' 
courses of study belong to the academic department, 
and scientific and classical to the collegiate. Instruc- 
tion is furnished in all branches of music by Dr. J. M. 
Stillman, and in a portion of the fine arts by other 
teachers. An alumni fund of $10,000 has recently been 
raised for endowment purposes, to which George H. 
Babcock, of Plainfield, 1ST. J., is pledged to add $10,000. 
These, with other endowment sums, provide the college 
with nearly $40,000. 

Eev. W. C. Whitford, D.D., has been President of 
the institution since 1858. Previously the charge was 
in the hands of Eev. Bethiiel C. Church, Kev. S. S. 
Bicknell, Dr. Jonathan Allen, Rev. Amos W. Coon and 
Prof. A. C. Spicer. Prof. Albert Whitford has taught 
here most of the time since 1854. Both the President 
and one of its former professors, Hon. Edward Searing, 
have held the office of State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction in Wisconsin, for eight years. Some of its 
graduates are now filling very important positions in 
the educational, political and religious fields of that 
State and elsewhere. The community in which the col- 
lege is maintained has many advantages for such an en- 
terprise. Arrangements are furnished to enable young 
people- to room and board at most reasonable rates, and 
the tuition ranges from $8.00 to $12.00 per term. The 
graduates number one hundred and eighty-five. 

Other academic schools have been established and 
supported in whole or in part by Seventh-day Baptists 
at Clarkeville, K Y. ; Shiloh, K J. ; Ashaway, E. I. : 



ha:n t d-book. 53 

Farmington, 111.; New Market, If- J.; Walworth, Wis., 
and Alden, Minn. All these have been suspended, most 
of them being converted into public schools. A female 
college was opened about thirty years ago in Plainfield, 
N. J., but it is now conducted as a private seminary. 
In 1854 the academy at Albion,, Wis., was organized 
with Eev. T. E. Williams, D.D., as principal. He was 
succeeded by Kev. A. E. Cornwall, who conducted the 
school about twenty years. It is now under the man- 
agement of Eev. S. L. Maxson, and is attended by about 
200 students. It is surrounded by an excellent popula- 
tion. 

The Seventh-day Baptist Education Society was 
formed in 1855, almost exclusively to aid Alfred Univer- 
sity and its theological department. In 1866 its consti- 
tution was so changed that other institutions came also 
under its supervision. It holds its annual sessions in 
connection with the General Conference, where it re- 
ceives reports from the schools of the denomination, 
presents the annual address of its Corresponding Secre- 
tary, and furnishes other carefully prepared papers on 
educational subjects. 

In 1872 a vigorous effort was instituted in the Asso- 
ciations and the General Conference to celebrate the two 
hundredth anniversary of the existence of Seventh-day 
Baptist Churches in America by raising $100,000, prin- 
cipally to strengthen our educational institutions. A 
board was chosen, located at Plainfield, N. J., to have 
the care of this fund, and to distribute its avails. 
Charles Potter, has been its President, and E. E. 



54 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

Pope its Treasurer from the beginning. In its report 
for 1886, the statement is made that $80,212.99 in cash, 
orders and mortgages, have been secured to this fund, 
besides several thousand dollars worth of real estate, 
the exact value of which is not estimated in said re- 
port. 

CHAPTEE VII. 

PUBLISHING. 

Previous to the year 1835 various publishing enter- 
prises in the interest of the Seventh- day Baptists were 
carried forward by individuals. In 1835 the Seventh-day 
Baptist General Tract Society was organized, and com- 
menced the issuing of tracts and other literature. In 
1843 it was reorganized as the American Sabbath Tract 
Society, under which name it has continued to represent 
the denominational publishing interests. A local society 
was organized under the name of the Xew Y^rk City 
Sabbath Tract Society in 1842. Its publishing interests 
w T ere soon handed over to the American Sabbath Tract 
Society, although its organization continued for many 
years. It did an important work in gathering a valuable 
library of Sabbath literature, which library was placed 
in the hands of Alfred University, in trust, a few years 
since. The American Sabbath Tract Society has en- 
larged its publishing operations, including the publica- 
tion of tracts, books and periodicals. At the present 
time it publishes the following periodicals, from the de- 
nominational publishing house at Alfred Centre, N. Y. : 



HAND-BOOK. 55 

The Sabbath Recorder, a denominational weekly; Oar 
Sabbath Visitor, a denominational weekly Sabbath- 
school paper; The Helping Hand in Bible-school Work, 
a Sabbath-school quarterly;' The Evangeli Harold, & 
.Swedish, religious and Sabbath reform monthly; The 
Light of Home, a religious and Sabbath reform monthly; 
and The Outlooh and Sabbath Quarterly, which is de- 
voted to all phases of the Sabbath reform question. All 
information concerning publications will be promptly 
given by addressing the American Sabbath Tract Society, 
Alfred Centre, New York. 



56 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Views and purposes concerning sabbath reform. 

Sabbath reform is necessarily a prominent part of the 
work of Seventh-day Baptists. They believe that the 
early Church, after the middle of the second century, 
fell into a grievous and destructive error, in gradually 
rejecting the Sabbath, and adopting the Sunday, with its 
associate festivals ; that there is no Scriptural warrant, 
or divine authority for such a change. They believe 
that the majority of Protestants have retained this 
essential error, especially in the reasons for the observ- 
ance of Sunday. These reasons necessarily make Sun- 
day non- Sabbatic, and divorce it wholly from the fourth 
commandment. The connection of Seventh-day Bap- 
tists with the reformatory movement in England, leads 
them to appreciate how nearly the Puritan party came to 
accepting the truth, and how illogical the conclusion 
was, which retained the Sunday, under Dr. Bound's 
theory. They believe that, while the work of Sabbath 
reform was delayed by this compromise, it must yet 
return to the point which it so nearly reached, in the 
English reformation. 

Their history in America is full of meaning, as the 
history of a people preserved in spite of all adverse 
influences, for no adequate purpose except to keep alive 
the truth concerning the Sabbath, and await the ripen- 
ing years when it could find a hearing. According to 
the ordinary laws of denominational life and death, the 
Seventh-day Baptists ought to have died, two centuries 



HAXD-BOOK. 57 

ago. On the contrary, their growth has been steady 
during that entire period. In their present efforts to 
promote Sabbath reform, they seek more the develop- 
ment of entire truth, than the enlargement of denomi- 
national lines. Seeing that the Puritan compromise has 
failed, that the drift of Society is backward to non- 
Sabbatic holidayism, that the popular theories give no 
solid ground on which to base reform, they perceive that 
the issue is larger than denominational lines. It involves" 
not alone their own denominational life, but the purity 
and perpetuity of Christianity. The decay of re- 
gard for sacred time, brings corresponding decay in 
public worship, and the loss of its attendant blessings. 
The Bible itself, as an authoritative book, is directly 
on trial in this issue. Those who have attempted to 
defend the Sunday on Biblical grounds, are met at every 
turn by the skeptical, with the charge of dealing falsely 
with the book upon which they pretend to base their 
theories. The authority of the decalogue, as a rule of 
life, is directly assailed by all arguments which attempt 
to invalidate the claims of the Sabbath. For these, 
and many other reasons, Seventh-day Baptists believe 
that the Bible and Christianity are both in deadly peril 
from the views which the Church has taught concern- 
ing the abrogation of the Sabbath, and the introduction 
of the Sunday. 

Under such circumstances, and amid such increasing* 
dangers, it becomes the duty, as it is the purpose, of 
Seventh-day Baptists to spread the truth concerning 
the nature and history of those influences by which the 



58 SEYEXTH-DAY BAPTIST 

present state of things lias been brought about. In a 
lawless and indifferent age, they stand to emphasize the 
claims of the law of God. At a time when few r things 
are held to be "essential," they stand to Yindieate the 
enduring authority of God's revelation at Sinai. In an 
age which talks gushingly about "salvation through 
faith," and "freedom from law," they stand, with the 
apostle Paul, to insist that the Gospel has no meaning 
except as a way of escape from the penalty of eternal 
law. They believe, devoutly in Calvary ; in Christ as 
the only Saviour of men. But they believe in Calvary, 
because Sinai still stands to condemn disobedience, and 
guide to the only true liberty, which is obedience under 
law, and not license without late. 

In pursuance of this purpose to compel attention to 
the dangers of the hour, and the demands of truth, th§ 
operations of the Seventh-day Baptists have been greatly 
enlarged during the present decade. 

They issue two periodicals which are specifically de- 
voted to the work of Sabbath reform. The Outlook 
and Sabbath Quarterly closed its fifth volume with the 
issue for January, 1887. The first tw^o volumes were 
issued as a monthly, the last three as a quarterly. Up 
to the close of the fifth volume, there had been cir- 
culated 38,400,000 (Magazine size) pages of this 
periodical. And of the Light of Home, at the close of 
its second volume, March, 1887, there had been cir- 
culated over 11,000,000 pages, making an aggregate of 
at least 50,000,000 pages of these two periodicals, which 
have been placed before the public since April, 1882. 



HAXD-BOOK. 59 

Much the larger share of this matter has been placed 
directly in the hands of clergymen. It has all been 
placed, as nearly as possible, in the hands of religious 
and thoughtful people, only. Before the Outlook had 
entered upon its third volume, Bev. Thomas S. Bacon, 
D. D., Point of Bocks, Md., in a pamphlet written to 
controvert the position of the Outlook said: 

" In what follows I shall take the arguments of the 
Outlook to represent the notion controverted, because 
they have undoubtedly at this time, more general cur- 
rency and greater effect upon opinion among those who 
guide the opinions of others, than anything else in this 
day and land. I am sure that many of my faithful 
brethren of the clergy have been more or less per- 
suaded or at least confused by them/ 3 

We have abundant evidence that the influence of these 
publications has increased with each succeeding month. 
Xo specific effort has been made to induce those who 
have embraced the truth concerning the Sabbath, to 
unite with the Seventh-day Baptists, but one of the 
agents of the American Sabbath Tract Society, writing 
on this pointy in March, 1887, says: 

" From a carefully kept list, it appears that in the past 
three years nearly 800 persons have embraced the Sab- 
bath. Of this number more than two scores are min- 
isters. These have reported themselves to us, or have 
been reported, while many more doubtless have accepted 
the light on the Sabbath question, who have not yet made 
themselves known to us. These results have come 
mostly through the circulation of the Outlook, and 
other publications of the Society. " 



60 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST 

As we have already stated, the primary purpose of the 
Seventh-day Baptists is not to gain numbers unto them- 
selves. It is rather to spread truth, patiently, and 
persistently, calling the attention of the church to its 
own dangers, and seeking to induce Sabbath reform 
upon the permanent basis of God^s divine law. 

Many other influences, — some of the more potent of 
which have grown directly from the work of the Seventh- 
day Baptists, — are now pressing the question of Sabbath 
reform upon the attention of the American people. At 
such an hour, this volume goes forth, not to sound the 
praises, but to indicate the faith, policy, and purposes, 
of the people whom it represents. 



IISTDEX. 

Albigecses, kept the Sabbath 7 

Albion Wis., Academy at 53 

Alden, Minn , Academy at 58 

Alfred University 50 

America, Seventh-day Baptists in 19, 20, 39, 48 

American Sabbath Tract Society, Organized, 1843 . .54 

present publications 54,55 

44 " " Publishing House 54 

Anti-Christ, opposed the Sabbath 7 

Ashaway, Rhode Island, Academy at 52 

Asia, Baptism in 4 

Bailey, Rev. James, quoted .20-38 

Baptist, Seventh-day, the first 3 

Baptists, Seventh-day, Connected with Middle- Age Sabbath- 
keepers 17 

Baptists, Seventh-day, Definition of Church 23 

44 Enlarged efforts of 5£ 

44 44 Independent Congregationalists . . 28 

Seek all truth 57 

Theory of Sabbath reform 56 

44 Practices concerning ordination 24 

" 44 44 Lord's Supper . . 29 

Faith anr Practice of 33 

44 . 44 Similarity to regular Baptists 33 

Bible their only authority 37 

44 44 And General Reforms 38 

' ■ And Missions 39 

Baptism, forms of, B. C 4 

44 Salvation by 5 

Benedict, David, quoted, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14 

Blair, History Waldenses 12 

Bohemian Sabbath-keepers 17 

Bound, Nicholas, author of Puritan Sunday theory 18 



ItfDEX. 

Carlstadt, kept the Sabbath 14 

Catharii, kept the Sabbath 7 

Cerinthians, kept the Sabbath. 7-14 

Christ, kept the Sabbath 3 

Christianity, early corrupted 4 

Christianity, on trial 57 

Christianity, Apostolic, corrupted by State. 5 

China, Mission in 40-42 

Statistics, &c 46 

Church, New Testament, kept the Sabbath 4 

Church, defined by Seventh-day Baptists 23 

Churches, Seventh-day Baptist organically independent 24 

Church Discipline 25 

Church Membership 26 

Church Letters 27, 28 

Church Meetings , 29 

Clarkville, N. Y. , Academy at 52 

College, Milton.. 51 

Constantine, first Sunday edict 321 A. D 6 

Conference, Seventh-day Baptist General, statistics 1886 21 

Conference, Seventh-day Baptist General, Constitution of. .31-33 

Covenant, Seventh day Baptist churches .34 

Cox, Robert, Sabbath Literature, quoted, 15 

Crantz, Historian, quoted 10 

Cyclopedia, Chambers, quoted 17 

Deacons, Ordination of 24 

may aid in ordination 24 

Delegates, how apportioned 31 

DeRuyter Institute 49 

Dunham, Edmund 21 

Egypt, Baptism in 4 

Egypt, Sun-worship in 5 

Erasmus, refers to early Seventh-day Baptists 15 



INDEX. 

Europe, Baptism in 4 

" Faith and Practice," statement of . 33, 35, 36 

German Reformation, Sabbath in 16 

History, early Seventh-day Baptists 3 

Sabbath, since Dark Age? 16 

'■'* Seventh-day Baptists in America. 19-22 

Education among Seventh-day Baptists 47-54 

" Seventh day Baptist Missions 39-47 

Publishing by Seventh-day Baptists 54, 55 

Hypsistarii, kept the Sabbath 7 

Jones, Church History, quoted 10 

Light of Home, Circulation of 58 

Lord's Supper, Celebration of 29 

Membership, letters of 26-28 

Meetings, Church 29 

Missions 39-47 

Mosheim, quoted 13 

Mumford, Stephen 19 

New Market, N. J. , Academy at 53 

Newport, R. I. , first Seventh-day Baptists at 39 

Noble. Rev. Abel 20 

Ordination, Practice concerning 24 

Organizations, other 29, 30 

Outlook, circulation of 58 

1 ' Influence of 59 

" Conversions through 59 

Papacy, drove out the Sabbath 7 

Passagii, kept the Sabbath 7 

Petrobrusians, kept the Sabbath 7 

Picards, kept the Sabbath 14 

Protestants, error of 5b 

Publishing . 54, 55 



INDEX. 

Purchase, quoted 13 

Reformers, German, No-Sabbathists 1% 

Reforms, general 38 

Reformation, English; Sabbath in 1? 

" Resurrection " 37 

Sabbath, since Dark Ages ,16-22 

" in Middle Ages 11-16 

" always been observed 7 

" not abrogated, 3 

Sacho, Rainer, quoted 9, 10 

"Second coming," Christ's 37 

Shiloh, N. J., Academy at 52 

Sleidan, John, quoted 14 

Sunday, how introduced , . 4 

Sun worship, oldest Paganism . 5 

Toulousians, kept the Sabbath 7 

University, Alfred 50 

Waddington, Dean, quoted 9 

Waldenses, kept the Sabbath 7-16 

Walworth, Wis. , Academy at 53 

White, Bishop, quoted 14 



